The feeling of knowing that someone will always be better than you at something can be agonizing. Whether that's someone having nicer things than you, getting better grades, or getting 1st place. Everyone has goals and dreams and they take time, effort, and perseverance. I’ve learned to take what life throws at me even when times get tough, because in the end I have goals I'm trying to accomplish. Growing up on a dairy farm and showing livestock is a prime example of dedication and perseverance. I’ve learned many life lessons growing up on the farm with equally as many hardships. From seeing calves being born to later sending them off to sale really shows how delicate life is. Spending hours working with livestock getting them prepared for a show just for your animal to do poorly in the show ring is a gut wrencher. After years of showing livestock through high school, I’ve learned you have to work hard for what you want. I kept putting in time and dedication and eventually I placed well. It may have taken blood, sweat, and tears to get that satisfaction but it sure does feel phenomenal. Throughout high school, I was involved with several extracurricular activities including, volleyball, track, FFA, showing livestock, and riding horses. However, my junior year of high school I quit sports as I was more interested in spending my time with FFA and showing livestock. I was our chapter's president, so I spent several days after school working on FFA events, chapter meetings, and practicing for competitions. I competed in vet science, sales, forestry, and marketing. We ended up placing 1st for our marketing project senior year of high school. Our marketing project actually was about “Domina Dairy and Creamery”, which is my family's business. While doing this project, I was able to incorporate ideas for my parents to expand our business. Being more involved with my family’s business gave me a new perspective on business and gave me valuable life skills. I’ve been attending Centralia College this past year and will be transferring to Oregon State University in the fall. I’m doing my undergraduate in biochemistry with hopes of going to Veterinary School afterwards. However, these plans aren’t set in stone because I want to be able to work in a research laboratory as a goal of mine. FFA has brought me to be an agriculture advocate today and hope to do research surrounding agriculture. I knew Oregon State University was the school for me when it was known for its agriculture program. Although I'm not majoring in agriculture sciences, I’d like to align my biochemistry degree with agriculture. This year at Centralia College, I’ve taken the biology, chemistry, and calculus series all together. I fell in love with science and the idea of doing experiments and research projects. Science is such a broad field to study with so many possibilities to be able to expand my horizons.